


Coincidence

by nepenthe_writer



Series: WinterIron Bingo [24]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Telepathic Bond, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:14:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21839536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nepenthe_writer/pseuds/nepenthe_writer
Summary: Tony gets the chance to meet his soulmate for the first time. It doesn't go how he'd always imagined it to.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Series: WinterIron Bingo [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1374691
Comments: 8
Kudos: 139
Collections: WinterIron Bingo 2019





	Coincidence

**Author's Note:**

> Square: N5 - Mind Link for the WinterIron Bingo

Puberty was not something that anyone really looked forward to in their lives. There were all the changes that the body went through as it transitioned from being a child to being an adult. It was an annoying, irritating, and sometimes downright gross process. The only good thing about it that most all people could agree on was that puberty was when the dreams started happening.

The same hormones that were responsible for every other change that a growing teenager went through were also responsible for connecting a person to their soulmate through their dreams. It was a rite of passage that most teenagers waited for eagerly. They were a chance to connect with the one person that the universe had made just for them. The dreams gave soulmates the opportunity to get to know one another as they grew up so that by the time they were old enough to meet and fall in love, the pair would already have a basis from which to grow on.

Tony was just like everyone else his age, going to bed each night, hoping to share his dream with the one person that was made just for him. Unlike most of his current peers however, his dreams remained nothing more than the normal dreams that everyone had. He hadn’t been too worried about it at first. There were a number of reasons why he might not have started dream sharing just yet.

For a soulmate pair to share a dream they both had to be asleep at the same time and with time differences Tony knew they might not match up all that often. There was also the fact that a person wouldn’t share every single dream with their soulmate even if they were both asleep. On top of all that, there was no definitive time in which soulmates would start sharing dreams. Some people claimed to start dream sharing as young as ten years old and some didn’t start until they were in their late teens.

It made Tony a bit worried the longer he went without sharing a dream with his soulmate but he tried to keep his mind focused on other things. It would happen when it happened and worrying wouldn’t change anything.

Finally on December 16, 1991 after Tony had seen his parents off for their trip he went to bed late in the evening and this time he was clearly not alone in his dream. When Tony fell asleep he opened his eyes to a cold, snowy road. There was no doubt in the genius’s mind that he was actually asleep but everything felt so real in a way his dreams never had before.

Tony could feel his heart beating in his chest with excitement at finally getting a chance to meet his soulmate for the first time. Looking around Tony couldn’t see anyone at first so he started walking down the road. There were a fresh set of tire tracks and Tony felt compelled to follow them. As the road turned around a bend Tony came across a man kneeling in the middle of the road staring mindlessly down at his hands in his lap.

Seeing a full grown man was a bit of a surprise to Tony. For the most part soulmates were fairly close in age though it wasn’t always the case. Society didn’t judge too harshly when there was a big age difference as no one could control who their soulmate was and the two of them would just find a way to make it work. As Tony walked closer he could hear the man muttering to himself as though he had no idea that he wasn’t alone.

“How could I do that? He was my friend. He was my friend. How could I?” the man moaned into the night.

Tony had no idea what was going on but if this man was his soulmate then Tony wasn’t about to let him sit there obviously hurting without trying to do something to help him. Crouching down beside the man Tony rested a hand on his shoulder, startling for a moment when instead of a jacket his hand met ice cold metal. Tony made a mental note to ask about that later. The sudden touch to his shoulder made the man’s head snap up in attention.

“Whoa, hey there. It’s okay,” Tony said. The ice blue eyes that had been so blank just a moment ago were now lit up in fear. “It’s okay. Everything’s going to be all right now.”

The man shook his head, eyes darting over Tony’s shoulder and around the road before coming back to Tony again.

“Are you real?” he asked.

Tony gave a half smile and shuffled closer. “Yeah I’m real. We’re asleep but the whole thing is real,” Tony said gently. There was obviously something wrong with the man and something inside of Tony was just begging for him to comfort his soulmate. “We’re sharing a dream which means we’re soulmates. You’ve got to know all about that. Sorry for making you wait so long to start sharing dreams. Must not have been easy waiting all these years.”

“Soulmate?” the man questioned as though the entire concept didn’t make any sense. “Can you have a soulmate when you don’t have a soul?”

Tony’s stomach clenched in worry. He had no idea what this man had gone through to make him think that he didn’t have a soul. How many people must have told him that he was all alone when he didn’t start sharing dreams when he was a teenager? Given the number of peers that had teased him when it was just a little later for him than normal made Tony not want to think of the cruel things that might have been said to his soulmate.

“You do have a soul,” Tony insisted firmly, squeezing the metal shoulder in reassurance. He’d definitely want to look into that later but for now that wasn’t the important thing.

The man just shook his head adamantly. Lifting a hand he pointed a single finger down the road where Tony hadn’t gone yet drawing the genius’s attention to a crashed car.

“Could someone with a soul have done that?” the man asked, looking up at Tony with hopeless eyes. “Could someone with a soul have killed a friend and his wife?”

The man looked down at his hands in his lap again. “I’m a monster.”

Before Tony had the chance to continue arguing he felt himself being pulled from the dream as he woke up. The sound of the doorbell ringing drew Tony further out of the shared dream and back into the waking world.

Scowling at being pulled away from his very first meeting with his soulmate, Tony looked at the clock and noted the extremely early hour. He stomped down the stairs of the mansion and to the front door. Disengaging the locks, Tony yanked open the door with more force than strictly necessary to give whoever thought it was a good idea to bother him in the middle of the night a piece of his mind.

On the other side of the door was a uniformed police officer. His car was flashing its lights waiting in the driveway. Tony’s eyes flickered between the officer and the car trying to figure out what was going on. There was no reason for the officer to be here. The neighbors shouldn’t have had any reason to call the cops on him. He had been sound asleep for goodness sake.

“Tony Stark?” the officer asked with a regretful look on his face. The look of someone that was baring bad news and wished they had anything else that they could be delivering instead.

“Yes,” Tony replied. The surrealness of the situation was slowly sinking in and Tony was sure that he didn’t want to hear whatever it was that the officer had to say. It felt like a stone had sunk in his stomach and was just sitting there weighing him down. All the excitement of finally getting to meet his soulmate had vanished.

The officer gestured towards the partially open door. “I’m Officer Wallace. May I come in?”

Tony shook his head, feeling more nauseated the longer time dragged on. “What is it?”

The officer paused for a moment trying to decide if he wanted to press the issue about stepping inside for more privacy and ended with the decision of respecting Tony’s wishes.

“I regret to inform you but there was an accident earlier tonight,” the officer said. “Your parents were in a car crash. Unfortunately, neither of them survived.”

Tony’s breathing went ragged at the news and his hearing faded away to nothing. He stood there in the open doorway watching the officer’s mouth move as he continued to talk to Tony but he couldn’t hear a thing. The only thing going through Tony’s mind in that moment were car crash, neither survived, and an image of a car smashed against a tree on the side of a snowy road.

Tony’s legs felt like jelly just before they gave out from underneath him and he sank down to the ground. Shaking his head as though that would make the whole thing go away Tony couldn’t stop himself from wondering over the coincidence. Because that’s all it had to be. Just some horrible coincidence. There was no way that he could have shared a dream with his soulmate for the first time where his soulmate was claiming to have killed a husband and wife in a car crash and the same thing had just happened to his parents. It was just some crazy coincidence. It had to be because the only other explanation was far too horrible.


End file.
